Saturday, December 21, 2013

STN Top 50 Albums Of 2013: 10-9

10 Public Service Broadcasting - Inform - Educate - Entertain
[iTunes] [Spotify] [Amazon]
From Steinski to the Books vocal sampling has been reworked and repurposed to greater ends, but it's surprising nobody really thought of taking it in PSB's chosen direction before. Even without the public information films, newsreel stock and documentary film voiceovers it'd be a fascinating expedition, based on post-rock's eddying drones and slow build surges while taking in charging kosmiche and Neu!-flavoured Krautrock, bubbling layers of synth and beats, Eno-esque repetition, hauntology's fear of the dark and the odd run of bluegrass banjo. If the underlying sentiments are unashamedly nostalgic, evoking the spirit of invention and the adventurers of the age, the outcome skews danceable rhythms into fluid shapes and is ultimately, mightily euphoric.

9 Jetplane Landing - Don't Try
[iTunes] [Spotify] [Amazon]
In a year short on great post-hardcore records, some old stagers returned with a blitzkrieg. Picking up from the records before the last album Backlash Cop, itself now six years old, might seem a retrogressive move and Andrew Ferris' return to his native Derry may inform at least a couple of tracks but time isn't mellowing either the knife-fight power of the riffage that twists in on itself before racing towards the cliff or the speed, determination and linguistic athleticism of Ferris' delivery. There's a few pop melodies that don't seem commercial, huge crashing buzzsaw guitar hooks, chantalong bits and the angriest track is about lost Beat poet Gregory Corso. Standard JPL, then, but so much more than standardisation really.